Twenty-two years ago, on September 21, 1951, at the time of the most brutal communist repression, a driver of a personal train was traveling from Cheb to Aš alongside the German border. Just before reaching Aš, Jaroslav Konvalinka switched to the adjacent track and continued in the new direction until he reached Selb-Ploeszberg in West Germany, which was about 35km from Hof. The train supposed to stop at the border station, but it didn’t. Instead it broke through the Iron Curtain and earned the name the “Freedom train.” It arrived in Selb with the train staff and 111 passengers, who had no idea about the change of the travel plan, and majority of them returned back to the Czechoslovakia. The Toronto Telegram, on October 26, 1951, described this change of the travel plan “as one of the most spectacular escapes from tyranny in modern history.” What the group did, as the Telegram described it, “was stealing a Communist train at a gunpoint and high-balling it from Prague’s Woodrow Wilson Station right into the lap of the Allied soldiers in Wildenau in West Germany.” The escape was planned by the driver, Jaroslav Konvalinka, another train employee, Karel Truska, law student Karel Ruml (he arrived with a pistol and his job was to guard the hand-brake) and a deputy inspector of Prague police, Václav Trobl, who the Communists quickly dismissed. Trobl (accompanied by his wife Vlasta and son Zdeněk) was seen by the others as the real hero of the escape. He played the main role in planning the theft of the train, and it was Trobl, who issued the order to break through the border. If they had been caught, they all would be sentenced to death and hanged.

Among those who returned home, was the brakeman, who said that he couldn’t stop the train because the emergency brake was “mysteriously” broken. Another returnee was a 16 years old girl, Zdeňka Hyblová, who returned to Czechoslovakia two days after her arrival in Selb. It was a brief return. Shortly after she got back, she escaped (and this time her escape was intended) again with two friends, 18 years old Milena Poláčková and 16 years old Kamil Kvapil, and she told the story of her return to Czechoslovak refugees in camp Valka. After she returned back to Czechoslovakia, she was questioned by officers of STB along with other returnees. Some of the questions she was asked deserve repeating: “You were beaten in Germany, weren’t you? You had nothing to eat, didn’t you? Have the Americans used force to keep some of the passengers in Germany? How did the Americans behaved themselves with girls?”

Among those who did not return were, of course, the planners of the escape Jaroslav Konvalinka, Karel Truska and other members of the train staff. All of them were invited by the U. S. Union to come to the USA, and they all accept the invitation. They were joined by Karel Ruml. The Trobl family chose Canada, arriving in Halifax on board of an old ship “Goja” and two days after reaching Halifax boarded a Canadian train – in their honor also named “the freedom train” – which took them to a small Ontario town called Ajax. The head of the family, the hero of the escape, Václav Trobl, is no longer with us. But his son, Zdeněk, is (after all, he is still a man in his best years). And so is Václav’s widow, Vlasta. And Vlasta will, on October 29, celebrate her 100th birthday.

Not surprisingly, she had experienced many a thing since October 24, 1951, when she first saw the country called Canada. I had the pleasure of chatting with her (and her son) in her lodging in an exceptionally fine home for seniors in Etobicoke (in western Toronto). We started talking about things that happened to her long before October 24, 1951. She recalled an incident, which occurred more than 98 years ago. At that time she was around 20 months old. Her father and his brother, who was visiting them at that time, were sitting in a room that she was entering. Her uncle called her to come to him. Vlasta started to run, but instead of running to her uncle, she went to her father. Perhaps she felt how deeply her father loved her – he and his wife already had three sons and he longed for a girl. Soon after he was drafted into the Austro-Hungarian army and he never returned. Then Vlasta recalled her French teacher at the school she attended many years later. Her teacher adored the first president of Czechoslovakia, T. G. Masaryk, and she passed this love on to her students and Vlasta as well.

Vlasta’s son, who visits her every day, sees her as a practical and adaptable woman (he sees himself as a sentimentalist). He may have a point. When I asked him about his first impressions of Canada, he described, quite poetically, the overwhelming beauty of Newfoundland, then the welcome from the dolphins, and never ending greenery he saw from the train from Halifax to Ajax. When I asked his mother the same question, she thought about it a few moments and said very simply “That I couldn’t speak English.” From Ajax (they didn’t stay there even overnight) they were taken to Toronto. Both mother and son have pleasant memories of the 14 days they spent in a “guest house” (they don’t remember its name) on Jarvis Street but they know that the building is now gone. After 14 days they were told that hey were on their own. They visited – as most newcomers before them – the Masaryk Hall on Cowan Avenue. The building is still there and is still called “Masaryk.” Vlasta recalled that the long-time president of the Masaryk Memorial Institute, Gustav Přístupa, gave her work in his tailor’s shop. Her first job was sewing on buttons. No problem there. When she finished that job, Mr. Přístupa seated her next to a huge sewing machine, she had never seen before. She was asked to stitch together two pieces of cloth. It came out crooked. Mr. Přístupa acknowledged that it wasn’t really her fault, but Vlasta lost her job anyway. Then Dr. Hradská, who played an important role in the community (and, particularly, in the Masaryk Institute), found Vlasta a job with a doctor’s family. Everything was going well until Vlasta placed a bucket filled with water, behind the door in the hall and as the doctor’s wife was leaving home, she tripped up and kicked the bucket quite violently and the water splashed all over her and she was all wet. Vlasta never went there again. Then Dr. Hradská found a job for her with a well known Slovak Kerney family and that was the perfect combination. Gizelle Kerney (we have seen her two weeks ago on the Toronto Czech television Nová vize) and Vlasta Troblová liked each other from the start and Vlasta worked for Gizelle the next 32 years. The family called her “Aunt Vlasta” and Aunt Vlasta once almost started a linguistic war, when Gizelle taught her son Peter that the word “blood” means – in Slovak – “krv!”, and Peter retorted that couldn’t be right, because Aunt Vlasta called blood “krev.”

Teta Vlasta did in her life many good and useful things. She didn’t miss a single meeting of The Women’s Council of the Czech and Slovak Association of Canada, working faithfully with its presidents, Ruth Petříček, Erica Wiezner and Blanca Rohn; she baked and cooked at balls and dances, both at the Masaryk Memorial Hall, and the St. Wenceslaus Church, with Mrs. Bernstejn as chef, and Mrs. Bílčik; she remembers with affection every individual person at the church and particularly that wonderful man, Jaroslav Janda: at one time, when the ladies were asked to cook practically every third day, and didn’t like it, Rev. Janda offered each of them 20 dollars for each dinner they cooked – every time Vlasta donated 10 dollars to the church and offered the other 10 dollars to Rev. Janda. Janda kept refusing it, but when Vlasta persisted, Janda accepted it with: “I’ll pay my debt.” For her voluntary work Vlasta was honored by the Province of Ontario.

Vlasta hurt her body (I have no idea how she treated her soul, we didn’t get around to it) fairly often. Twice she managed to break her arm: once she fell from stairs (that time her arm grew together fine), the second time she fell on ice. Her doctor didn’t set her arm correctly and didn’t send her to have the fracture ex-rayed. She has problem with this arm to this day. She was already past her 80th birthday, when she fell while getting on a bus. Her son is still trying to figure out how she managed it. According to the established account, she fell backwards, her skirt rolled up to her neck, she hit the pavement with the back of her head, the pavement didn’t suffer too badly, her head wasn’t pleased, however Vlasta survived. But a little earlier (but I do get easily confused, it could have been a little later), while crossing Royal York Road, she collided with a motorcycle, ridden by a doctor’s son, who obviously had poor brakes and Vlasta suffered a bad shock. Even at that, she was lucky; she could have been killed.

She survived everything: loss of her homeland, a family tragedy, a fractured arm (twice, once poorly healed) etc. True: she has problem walking, so she does a great deal of sitting, and because she sits in the chair long hours, the part of her body most intimately collaborating with the chair, occasionally hurts. But: her eyes are brighter than mine – and she is twelve years older; she remembers what happened 98 years ago; her hearing is perfect; and she talks so fast I have difficulty keeping up with her. She laughs a lot and when she does, she looks at most 89.

I forgot to ask her two important questions: 1. Was it worth it? 2. Would she like to repeat it? So I asked her son to ask her these two questions for me. Vlasta answered them both in one sentence: ”It could have been worse, but I wouldn’t want to repeat it.” That clarity of thinking! That directness of speech! That economy with words! I feel that all of us should try to convince her to run for a high office. The higher, the better. I am already looking forward to her speeches.

Man can change the world in many ways: by planting thousands (or one) trees, by building skyscrapers, by writing a poem, painting a landscape, composing a song. Or by trying to find – and finding – ways how to increase our knowledge about the universe or the human brain or how to do things differently and better. A man we wrote about sometime a year ago, Ludvík Martinů, fits in the last mentioned group. Some of us know, that he is a distinguished scientist; some know him as a member of the Montreal unit of the Sokol Gymnastic Organization, and still others as the husband of Alena, the author of a fascinating book. This brief comment is about Ludvík Martinů, the scientist (and entrepreneur).

He graduated in Prague in 1985 in a mysterious field known as Nanocomposite films formed by metal clusters in dielectric matrices fabricated by a hybrid PECVD process. And, of course, all of us are familiar with that. After graduation Ludvik worked in research, first at his alma mater, Charles University in Prague, then at the Bari University in Italy, and finally moved to Montreal’s Ecole Polytechnique, to become the head of research in optical coatings and optical film systems. He taught and planned creating at the Polytechnique Montreal, with the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Research Chair in coating and surface engineering.

On September 25, 2012, his magnificent dream came true. That day it was announced in Montreal that, indeed, a Research chair in coating and surface engineering was inaugurated at the Ecole Polytechniqe by the Polytechnique, NSERC and seven partners (among the largest companies in Canada: Essilor, Hydro-Quebec, Canadian Industries Corp., Pratt&Whitney Canada, Velan (yes, our Velan), JDS Uniphase and the Canadian Space Agency. Funding for the next five years is assured by a 2.6 million donation from NSERC, and 2.75 million donations from the seven partners. Ludvík Martinu, Professor in the Department of Engineering Physics at Polytechnique Montreal was appointead chair of this huge undertaking. Research will focus on developing a new generation of non-polluting manufacturing technologies for nanostructured coating materials.

The scope of collaboration within this Chair reflects the immense variety of industry fields in which the multi-layer coating technologies can be applied, such as aerospace, energy, manufacture, optics, photonics and space exploration.

And how does Professor Martinu see the future? “ The possible functionalities are limited only by our imagination.”

He should know: The Chair is largely his “child” – a unique achievement. Congratulations.

Jan Drabek is a Canadian writer born in 1935 in Prague. His father was a prominent Prague lawyer arrested by the Gestapo in 1943 and sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. After 1945 his father became the chief prosecutor at the trial of K.H. Frank, boss of the Nazi-controlled Czech Protectorate, who was sentenced to death and executed. After the Communist takeover of February 1948 Drabek´s entire family including Jan’s older brother Jaroslav, escaped to Germany. Later they emigrated to the USA.

Jan Drábek has led a colorful life. In Prague he attended the same high school in Křemencova Street as did many years before the famed actors Voskovec and Werich. He also attended a boarding school in Poděbrady with Vaclav Havel, Milos Forman, Ivan Passer and the Masin brothers as his schoolmates. He studied English Literature at the American University in Washington DC, indology in India, where he met his future wife who was returning to Canada from Tanzania. He served with the U.S. Navy, was a Radio Free Europe announcer and later a high school teacher in Vancouver where he lived with his wife and two daughters. Between the years 1990-1992 he taught English at the Czechoslovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Between 1992-1994, he served as the Czech ambassador in Kenya, between 1994-1996 as the chief of diplomatic protocol in Prague and in 1997 he was the Czech Ambassador to Albania. He is the author of 18 books, but their total number is uncertain because some of them have been substantially altered translations: Drabek writes in both Czech and English.

This interview has been prompted primarily by the manuscript of his new book, Vladimir Krajina: Hero of European Resistance and Canadian Wilderness. The book is being published this October by Ronsdale Press in Vancouver.

Jan, I have always thought highly of the fact that in your books as well as in your personal life you have told the truth and were not afraid to express critical views. Nevertheless in an interview with the Czech magazine Týden you have said that you suspect your mother had to sleep with a Gestapo man in order to get your father out of a concentration camp. That must have been meant as a jest because in your book about Krajina you state the opposite — that it was he who arranged the release of your father.
Krajina without a doubt had the lion’s share on my father’s surviving the war. By what he told the Gestapo he succeeded to have father called back from Auschwitz, where he would have almost certainly not survived. No one from his transport did. Of course, then it was necessary to take desperate steps so that father wouldn’t be sent back there. And in the end the Germans even released him from a Prague jail. Here the main role was played by the Gestapo man Gall. By the way, my father wrote a novel about a situation where the wife of a Resistance worker saved the life of her husband that way. It was published in Czech in Toronto and later also in Prague and was called Podzemí (The Underground).

There is no doubt that Vladimír Krajina since 1942 until his arrest on January 31, 1943 sent to London some 20,000 valuable coded messages — about 50 daily on the average — and received 6.000 of them. That’s an unbelievable feat, worthy of our admiration. Especially since at the time he was separated from his family, had to be constantly on the move, changing his hideouts. Is that number realistic?
Yes it is. Krajina actually began sending these messages already in 1939. And he was helped by others in coding and decoding them, including his wife.

You write in the book that Krajina was against the assassination of the Acting Reichsprotektor Heydrich and that he had his doubts about his group, Úvod, working in collaboration with the military group Obrana Národa (Defense of the Nation). Do you think this was because of Krajina´s insistence on secrecy or, as Václav Černý writes in his Pláč koruny české (The Weeping of the Czech Crown), that he had certain authoritative tendencies?
He certainly possessed such tendencies. These also helped him when he had to make quick decisions and in his case they were usually the correct ones. On the other hand while the military men were certainly brave, they often acted less responsibly. I remember reading how one of the famous “Three Kings” among them had asked a Gestapo man on the street for a light and then sent him a postcard informing him about it. And Marie Krajina, Vladimir´s wife, once told me another story. While walking through Prague streets with him and delivering messages from her husband another of the “Three Kings” used to whistle on the barrel of his gun.

When the school principal Hlaváček who had previously hidden Krajina, was arrested he told the Gestapo he was ready to betray Krajina and the parachutists from London in return for a promise that they would not be harmed. Even though the Gestapo was primarily interested in obtaining further information, I was surprised that it would make such a deal. The parachutists all died while Krajina, who was unable to take poison in time, was not harmed. How do you see all this?
The deal was proposed by the Gestapo, not Hlaváček, who even tried to commit suicide when captured. The Gestapo threatened Hlaváček that if he did not accept it, his village would be leveled to the ground like Lidice. Here it´s also important to remember that at the time the Germans were already retreating on all fronts and K.H. Frank – who certainly was no fool – wanted to keep his back door open. And as we know today, he was also something of an admirer of Krajina.

You quote Gestapo men Nachtmann and Leimer who were taking Krajina to the Gestapo headquarters in Prague after his arrest. They told him that “things will be all right now and you´ll soon see your wife who has been released from a concentration camp”. The quotation seems to me almost unbelievable, especially since Frank and the deputy Reichsprotektor Daluege offered Krajina a high position in the protectorate government, something that Krajina refused. But the year before the protectorate premier, general Eliáš had been executed by the Nazis.
Here I am quoting Krajina himself. But the offer came afterKrajina arrived in Prague with the two Gestapo men. And Eliáš had been arrested and sentenced to death during the martial law proclaimed by Heydrich. And here my answer to your previous question applies as well: in 1943 the political situation was already quite different.

After Krajina refused this offer he became Frank´s “honorary prisoner” in Terezín. There he lived separately from other prisoners along with Hlaváček until practically the end of the war when the Gestapo man Leimer surrendered himself to Krajina. Even though I realize that the Germans were building an alibi to use after the war, the arrangement seems hard to believe.
I´ll admit that at first glance it isn´t exactly easy to believe. But at that time the Allies had already landed in Normandy and liberated Paris, Stauffenberg had nearly succeeded in assassinating Hitler and Svoboda´s army had entered Czechoslovak territory from the East.

Because of the above reasons after the war Krajina was investigated by a state commission and all the accusations against him were dismissed. Even Frank expressed his admiration for the fact that Krajina did not go against his principles and did not give in. However, some people expressed their doubts because the behaviour of the Gestapo towards Krajina did not have a parallel. Why do you think Krajina had such incredible luck?
I don´t know whom exactly you mean by “some people” except perhaps the Communists (By the way that commission which investigated Krajina had a Communist member on it). Hard to believe it doubtlessly is, but I have never heard the testimony of a single credible witness who was able to present evidence to the contrary.

After the war your father was named chief prosecutor at the trial of K.H. Frank while Krajina became the general secretary of the Czech National Socialist Party. President Beneš accepted the resignation of the non-Communist ministers with the exception of Jan Masaryk who did not resign. This is considered to be a major mistake of the sick president. I am sure you talked about the February 25th 1948 Communist coup with your father. Even though the Communist Party received 40 per cent of the vote, it still lacked a majority. How do you think the situation could have been saved?
Of course, there have been other non-Communist ministers who did not resign, for example the Social Democrat, Václav Majer. But 40 per cent was enough for the Communists to control key ministries like interior, information and defense (the last one led by the crypto Communist Svoboda). On the other hand the non-Communist ministers were not exactly naïve (as they are frequently described by current Czech historians). According to my father they simply played for time, hoping that the West would wake up. And the West did wake up, unfortunately only after the fall of Czechoslovakia. Such things as the Truman Doctrine of help to Greece and Turkey, the Berlin Airlift and the birth of NATO were all a reaction to the loss of Czechoslovakia. A while ago I again studied the whole thing and wrote a series of articles about it for the Nový Polygon magazine. As I see it, there was still a certain chance that democracy could have been saved in the summer of 1947 when Stalin forbade Czechoslovakia to accept the Marshall Plan but this chance was no longer there in February of the following year.

The fact that your father and Krajina went into exile after February 1948 must have been the right decision by which they saved their lives or many years of a Communist prison. My own father didn’t see that far ahead. How much do you value this decision of your parents?
Immensely. Of course father and his friend Krajina had the advantage of knowing what totalitarian prisons were like. Worse off was their friend, the Minister of Justice Drtina, who had spent the war in exile. He had no family and reacted to this national tragedy by trying to commit suicide. Unsuccessfully. Then he spent twelve years in prison.

In your book you describe in detail the life of Vladimir Krajina and his family in Canada. There Krajina became a university professor and his knowledge of botany and forestry are highly valued. What, in your opinion, is professor Krajina´s greatest scientific contribution to Canada and to the world generally?
Krajina is the father of a system of ecological reserves in British Columbia which is today copied throughout the world. This is a province which belongs among the richest in the world when it comes to natural wealth. Today there are 152 such reservations here. One of the largest is on the Haida Gwai island and is named after him. However, before these reservations could be created nature here had to be properly mapped ecologically. That was again mainly the work of Krajina and his students. By the way, as far as the size of British Columbia is concerned, it could contain three Japans.

It must have been a great satisfaction to Vladimir Krajina to have been able to visit his homelandand to receive the high decoration of Order of the White Lion from President Václav Havel. He died in June 1993 at the age of 88. Could you summarize and evaluate the life of this outstanding scientist, politician and Resistance leader with such great luck?
He belonged to the European branch of what the American journalist Tom Brokaw called the Greatest Generation. They were the ones who had won the most terrible war in history and at the same time made sure that no other world wars could ever be fought.

And in conclusion a question for you personally: You have led a colorful life. What in this life do you consider the greatest source of happiness and satisfaction and also which event in it would you most like to forget?
I see you have left the most difficult question as last. My greatest source of happiness is undoubtedly the fact that I have found an outstanding partner in life. And what I would most like to forget is that when I returned to my native Czechoslovakia to help with its transition among decent societies, through their incompetence they almost killed her. And no one at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs so far found it within himself to apologize.

Canada could hardly complain about being treated by nature miserly. It has been blessed with about one quarter of the world supply of the drinking water. Its size (the second largest in the world) allows it to dedicate huge chunks of land for parks. To its credit, Canada created, on a total land mass greater than all of Germany, a system of 42 national parks (the rain forest of Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, The Mountains of Banf Park…), which are to preserve outstanding examples of each of Canada’s 39 natural regions.

One of the 42 national parks is named Georgian Bay Islands National Park. Georgian Bay is a bay of Lake Huron, 220 km long, 100 km wide, covering more than 15,000 sq. km. In its waters dwell and meditate about eternity tens of thousands of islands. The largest of them, Manitoulin Island, is the world’s largest island in fresh water lake. The huge majority of the islands is significantly smaller – in one area alone – if you’d care to spend the time – you’d count more than 30,000 of them – the region is not unexpectedly known as the “Thirty Thousand Islands;” in the summer you can hop on one of the several boats either in Penetanguishene or Midland and spend a couple of hours cruising – with thousands of other tourists – the island-infected waters of this lovely branch of the bay. Those waters and the shores of the bay have been for thousands of years the traditional domain of the aboriginal people. The first European who explored and mapped this region (in 1615-1616 – just a few years before the White Mountain Battle) was Samuel de Champlain, who called the bay “Le Mer douce” (klidné moře). But the bay was christened – in honor of the King George IV – by Lieutenant Henry Wolsey Bayfield of the Royal Navy.

The features most associated with Georgian Bay (mainly the islands, the Algonquin park and the shores) are the rusty granite rock foundation – the granite bedrock was exposed some 11,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age, and the White Pines.. Those waters and islands, that rusty granite bedrock and the windswept Eastern White Pine, captured the eye of a group of painters who became known as a “Group of Seven.” The body of the first of them, Tom Thomson, whose renovated cabin adds drama to an art gallery located a few kilometers north of Toronto, was found floating in 1917 in Canoe Lake in Algonquin Park. The other members of the group were: Franklin Carmichael, A.J. Casson, Arthur Lismer, Lawrence Harris, A.Y. Jackson, F.H. Varley, who were somehow joined by a West coast painter, Emily Carr. A number of our people fell in love with the Algonquin Park, including Sokol members Jarmila Bečka, the families of Dita and Charley Hykl and Jana and Luboš Frynta, as well as the family of the former Consul General of the Czech Republic in Toronto, Richard Krpač.

Georgian Bay inspired along its shores the development of vacations centers such as Collingwood, Port Severn, Tobermorry, Penetanguishene, Wassaga Beach, Scenic Caves, Tyrolean Village Resorts, Midland, Blue Mountain Resort. The largest and most successful of them is without question the Blue Mountain Resort, founded by Slovak refugee, Jozo Weider. Before the Second World War, Jozo owned in Mala Fatra an internationally owned chalet named “Pod Rozsutcem.” During the war the chalet became a partisan shelter. In 1944 it was scattered to all sides by the Nazis. Jozo and his Czech wife Helen – a native of Nymburk – came to Canada in May, 1939 and in 1941 founded the Blue Mountain Resorts (in 1948 Jozo and Helen founded the Blue Mountain Pottery) and saw – before he was killed in an automobile accident – the success of his company. After his death, his wife Helen wrote a poem “The Mountain Balad,” dedicated to her husband, the man who belonged to the mountains, was born and lived in their midst his whole earthly life, and through his ashes ever after.

On the way from Toronto to Georgian Bay – halfway between Barrie and Collingwood – you will come to a magnificent proof of the Czech entrepreneurial genius, the Edenvale Aerodrome of Milan Kroupa, the place which in just a few weeks, on August 11, will host the largest show in Canada of tens of airplanes (including the airplane which bombed Tokio) and some two hundred historic cars – and thousands of spectators from all over the place.

If you look from the Blue Mountain across the bay, you will see on the other side a small vacation resort called Palm Beach with – in the neighboring area – summer homes of quite a number of Czech people, including two members of the Toronto New Theatre, Jana Fabiánová and Dasha Hubschmanová. A few kilometers along the shore to the west, you will see a shallow round area of water, looking like a natural swimming pool, separated from the lake by a stone barrier, interrupted in several places by gaping holes. You can easily walk across this place from one side to the other. Or you can just lie down in the warm shallow water, rest your head against a boulder and start dreaming. I spent there more than one pleasant afternoon. I even wrote there a poem…

(This article was sent to the organizer of the conference, Professor Vilem Prečan. This is his response: „Many thanks for your excellent contribution. It will be posted on the conference website and distributed in written form to all conference participants.”)

I don’t recall when I met Gordon for the first time. Actually, I feel that I sort of knew him always.

68Publishers

It must have been around the time Zdena and Josef Škvorecky arrived in Canada, because I remember how deeply Gordon was involved in the establishment of 68Publishers (Sixty-Eight Publishers), the institution which started with nothing and was to play such an immense role in the survival of the Czech literature during the 40 years of the Communist rule in Czechoslovakia. My main involvement was as a lawyer doing the legal work in connection with the incorporation of the charitable corporation which received its charter in 1972 and during its existence published more than 220 titles, after the manuscripts of many of them were smuggled from Czechoslovakia. Its incorporators and first directors were H. Gordon Skuilling, Gleb Žekulin, Michael Schomberg (all three either present or future professors of the University of Toronto) and myself. H. Gordon Skilling was elected Chairman of the board, a position he held until the Škvoreckys surrendered the charter of 68 Publishers in 1995. Gordon’s role in the life of this unique publishing house, and particularly in the weeks prior to its incorporation, was of vital importance.

Lunch with Professors Kathryn Feuer and Gordon Skilling

Again, I am not sure of the date. It was either at the end of 1966 or at the beginning of 1967. I attended the lunch as spokesman for the Czechoslovak Association of Canada. A decision was taken at that lunch to introduce a Czech and Slovak Languages and Literatures Program at the University of Toronto. The university moved quickly: By letter, dated March 21, 1967 the then President of the University of Toronto, Claude Bissell, advised me that the Board of Governors accepted “with great pleasure” our offer of a donation “to be paid over a three-year period, towards the salary of a professor in the Department of Slavic Languages and Literature who will be responsible for teaching a course or courses in Czech and Slovak Literature…The university agrees to continue the course in Czech and Slovak Literature for a minimum of three years after 1970. After 1973 it is the intention of the University that the course be continued indefinitely unless lack of students or similar unpredictable reasons make it impossible to do so…” To my knowledge, no lack of students or other unpredictable event has occurred and the course (or rather courses) taught by Professor Veronica Ambroš are doing well. Again, Professor Skilling’s inspiration was an indispensable ingredient in the success of this venture.

Celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the foundation of Czechoslovakia

The main event of these celebrations was a seminar at the University of Toronto entitled “Czechoslovakia – 1918 to 1988. Seven Decades form Independence”. The seminar was organized by Professor Skilling, and was attended by leading scholars from almost twenty universities, including Stanley B. Winters from the New Jersey Institute of Technology; Gregory F. Campbell from Cartage College, Wisconsin; Andrew Rosson, Peter Brock, Paul R. Magosci, Richard Day, Dušan Pokorný; Scott Eddie, Gleb Žekulin and Josef Škvorecký from the University of Toronto; Walter Ullmann from Syracuse University; Piotr S. Wandycz from Yale University; Edita Bosak from Memorial University, Newfoundland; Ronald M. Smelser from the University of Utah; Gary Cohan from Oklahoma University; Radomír V. Luža from Tulane University; Yeshayahu A. Jelinek from Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel; Roman Szporluk from University of Michigan; Frederick Barnard from the Univrsity of Western Ontario; Joseph Rothshild from Columbia University; Radovan Selucký from Carleton University; Ján Adam from the University of Calgary; Igor Hájek from Glasgow University; and Markéta Goetz-Stankiewicz from the University of British Columbia. Also participating were George J. Kovtun, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., Vilém Prečan, Documentation Centre for the Promotion of Independent Czechoslovak Literature, German Federal Republic. A reception was held at the Thomas Fisher Rare Books Library, University of Toronto, where Luba Fraštacký arranged an exhibition of the Special Collection of the Petlice and other independent literature. Inspired by this conference were three other events: a concert, which was my responsibility, featuring pianist Antonín Kubálek, composer Oskar Morawetz, Slovak sopranos Maria Mattei and her daughter, Nina Mattei, cellist Vít Fiala and Dagmar Rydlo. The guest speakers were Chaviva Hošek (then a member of the Ontario Government), Věra Fraštacký and one of the last living Russian Legionnaires, Major Rudolf Hasek. A major part of the celebrations was a five-part CBC Radio program entitled The Human Face, written by John Reeves. Reeves became fascinated with Czechoslovakia in 1968 at the time of Prague Spring: People often ask me why I, a native Canadian with no Czech background, have this prolonged interest in Czechoslovakia. What was going on there was in my view – and in the view of many – as important a movement as the Reformation had been in the medieval period. Reeves program was broadcast from October 24 to October 28, 1988. Finally, as part of the celebrations, the Nové divadlo (New Theatre) premiered in Czech Václav Havel’s play The Temptation (Pokoušení). These celebrations were the most significant action related to Czechoslovakia I witnessed in Canada in the last more than 60 years, and Professor Skilling played the central role. I like to recall one incident which occurred at the seminar. At one session I said that I agreed with one of the speakers even though his father sued me for libel because of editorials I wrote about his activities during the war. My remarks were clearly something one doesn’t do at an academic gathering and many of those present were displeased. Not Gordon. In fact I still see his amused, perhaps even mischievous smile: he didn’t like the Nazis…

Václav Havel visits Toronto

Havel ‘s visit on February 19, 1990 was captured on a video, showing his arrival at the Convocation Hall of the University of Toronto, and the formal welcoming remarks delivered by Havel’s good friend, Professor Skilling. The visit was covered in considerable detail by Josef Klíma in several issues of the Prague weekly, Reflex, particularly in the issue dated June 11, 1991. I remember several meetings and telephone conferences with Gordon, but particularly the meeting at one the offices of the Ontario Government in Toronto, dealing with the program and security issues. It was a fairly large meeting which included representatives of the Government of Canada, the Government of Ontario, the City of Toronto, the RCMP, the Toronto police, the Czech and Slovak Association of Canada (represented by Mr. Jiří Corn) and others. To me the two most important people present were a beautiful and obviously highly cultured lady who represented the Goverment of Ontario (I learned only some days later that the lady was a sister of the man who sued me for libel), and Professor H. Gordon Skilling, who represented the University of Toronto. Gordon simply – by the force of his personality – dominated the meeting. To the extent that when he nominated me to moderate the meeting with Havel at the Convocation Hall, where the president of Czechoslovakia was to receive an honorary degree of law (not from the University of Toronto, but the other Toronto University, York University) and deliver a major speech to the Czechoslovak exiles, there were no other nominations. So I must thank Gordon (who never mentioned to me that he was going to nominate me) for the privilege of witnessing – (as I see it) one step on the road to the division of Czechoslovakia. But whatever the result of Havel’s visit to the Convocation Hall, Gordon planned to enhance the reputation of an old friend, one he managed to visit at Hrádeček even during the Communist era.

Four encounters – four testimonials to H. Gordon Skilling’ s allegiance to the Czechoslovak cause.

“What? The Dalai Lama arrives? I have not heard about that!” That was the answer to the SMS sent to a friend from Slovakia who texted me a week before the Dalai Lama arrived in Prague. I immediately began to search the Internet to see if this is correct, because it seemed impossible to me, that such news is not published publicly. I found almost nothing except for pages of Vaclav Havel:

However, I found out that he will have a discussion about human rights at Charles University and after that, a lecture at the Congress Centre in Prague. Tickets were to be available at Ticketpro agency.

I was right on Wenceslas Square, so I went to ticket agency. “What! The Dalai Lama?” The lady behind the counter asked me incredulously. She was shaking her head and looked at me with eyes full of inspection: “Where have you fallen from, my dear? They have been sold out long time ago! “

I went later to a small village in Moravia to visit my mother who does not have internet, and she is therefore dependent on the TV for information. There had been no news of the impending visit on the TV. She did not know about the visit. She was surprised.

Reports began to emerge. On 10/12/2011 was the report on Czech TV1the News of the impending visit of the Tibetan spiritual leader was reported immediately after the information that the ski season had started, and that people are going for Christmas shopping in the border region. On 11/12/2011 in the morning news on Czech TV 24 we can see that the Dalai Lama, after his arrival on Saturday, met with our ex-president Vaclav Havel.

Between him and the Dalai Lama was very friendly relationship. Their meeting was very moving, as the Dalai Lama was gently massaging Vaclav Havel´s palm. On Czech TV the Dalai Lama said about Vaclav Havel: “I feel great honor that I could meet with him, we are longtime friends and he is not only my friend but a friend and spiritual leader of the free world. That’s what I feel. I asked him to live another ten years”. But then we did not know that this request would not be fulfilled.

I still wish to go to lecture, even though I have no ticket. What can I do? It is 13:00 on the day of the talk as I sit on the Metro and I am going to Vyšehrad station. My hope for a chance to get to the Prague Congress Centre is almost disappeared. My legs are like jelly.

In the carriage with me is a large group of Tibetans, including children. They have traditional clothing, cheerful eyes, gentle and friendly behavior to each other. The picture helps me breathe freely and feel comfortable.

There were many large queues heading to the Congress Centre. If someone looked at it from above he would see it like an octopus.

My hope to enter has jelly legs again. It does not even try whisper me something about courage. At the entrance I passed two men. One of them was holding a printed ticket from Ticketpro. The other man paid 1200 CZK (officially worth CZK 300) for the ticket. In my heart passed light shadow, but then I thought - that’s his choice, his responsibility, and my wish and my choice. And I want go in.

I asked him hesitantly if he has any more tickets for sale. “No!” he says briskly. Then observed by the previous customer who is obviously, judging by the expression on his face, still dealing with the price he paid, “You see dude, everyone wants a ticket” Then he packed a roll of money into his pocket and hurried away. I hope for the man that the ticket is at least not a forgery.

Then I continue to walk past the long queues and send a message to potential resellers that I would like to buy a ticket.

I continued up to the very end, where there were a few unfortunates with the same message as I have. They do not like to accept me into their club.

Well, in that moment comes from nowhere, like a cannonball, smiling friend Helen. “Ticket! I have a ticket for you! “I didn´t understand but at the entrance she introduced me to her friend Kamil. They fought together for my ticket which was sold by a gentleman who was much more respectable than the first one and he wanted the original price.

Joy and humility came over me and I said thank you to the great Universe and his wife, children and dog for this nice little miracle. My hope says with an important face: “I told you so!”

I am happy and grateful. The podium was simply decorated. The light grey background with a great silhouette of Buddha created a beautifully tuned mosaic of colored images. Here is the Dalai Lama, his assistant and excellent translator.

And consider the fact – how old is the Dalai Lama? He could be called “an incredible old man,” but the word “old man” would lead to a lot of confusion. This man, at his age, can respond quickly to the current situation, he can humorously and vigorously discuss and answer questions logically and with sophisticated humor.

The problem opens the possibility

He talked about how at sixteen he had to go into exile, and later lost his country. He talked about how sad it is now the situation in Tibet and how his experiences at the end of these have been useful. Because it all happens he becomes more practical and realistic person. So what is seen as a problem can, from a different perspective, look completely different. What is seen as tragic may from another point of view appear as an opportunity.

Mental level of the mind

He talked about the human mind. The senses are a source of information for the brain. But scientists do not know everything about the human brain. Still, there is the mental level of the mind which is not dependent on the senses.

People often think that the mind is entirety. One is either sad or happy. People forget to perceive subtle changes. People forget that their feelings may change suddenly. The mind is composed by a myriad of different aspects. And even it is not so simple. Many processes happen simultaneously at multiple levels at once. When we understand how our mind works, we can live better. This is written in many religious texts, but it is not necessary that it had a religious connotation. Discussions are ongoing with scientists in the field of brain science, psychology and psychiatry, but also scholars of ancient Indian traditions. He talked about how he liked to participate in these discussions.

Anger does not help

He talked about the time when we feel anger at someone who hurts others. It does not help those they are hurting, nor harm the ones who harm others. The only persons who may be hurt are ourselves.

Reconciliation with the death of loved ones

He talked about how to find reconciliation with the death of our beloved people. When someone we love dies, naturally we feel sadness, pain and helplessness. Death is a natural part of life every of person on this planet. There’s nothing we can do to change it. However, we can listen to our loved ones; empathize to their needs and wishes and try to satisfy them. We can make their lives fulfilled and consequently also our life. If we in our hearts care for the good of others, we do not need to pretend and hide and we can live fully and truthfully.

What is the power of prayer of the common man for a better world?

He talked about prayer which is good for our own internal mental health. However, people are praying for things to be good for thousands of years but the bad still happen. Therefore more powerful than prayer is often the action. The Dalai Lama puts great emphasis on personal responsibility.

What can we do with the current situation?

He said that what happens in the world around crisis can be very negative and to fix it quickly can be difficult. We can educate children. We can teach them morals and ethics, we can teach them how to care for others and attitudes of compassion. Then our future can be better.

It was interesting to sit among the people and listen to a man in monastic robes supplying power and optimism to many of us. It was nice to turn my head and watch the faces of people who listen, and see in their reflection a kind of grace in their faces. It was nice to see in front of the lecture hall a group of Tibetans. They were posing for photographers with the Tibetan flag, about which just few of us know that:

“The white colour on it symbolizes the fact that Tibet is a land of snow, and its triangular shape indicates that there are mountains, over which is the sun on a blue sky. The rays symbolize the joy of freedom, and the six red stripes indicate the six original tribes of Tibet. The two lions are protectors and the cup at their feet with three flaming treasures – a teacher, teaching, and community (Buddha, Dharma and Sangha).In front of their feet is the Yin Yang symbol, which symbolizes ethics, integrity and fidelity to purity, and the yellow rim shows the flowering of the Buddha’s teachings and fourth layer without rim shows openness and respect of Tibet to teachings and spirituality of others who are not Buddhist nations. “*

It was very nice to meet outside the hall Slovak poet Judita Kaššovicova and Slovak blues musician, composer, lyricist and vocalist Juraj Turtev.

Their musical project based on poetic book “The land of silence” which was written by Judita includes some photos of the Dalai Lama.

I asked them what was the most interesting piece in the Dalai Lama lecture:

Judita Kaššovicová: “Tolerance. That, as His Holiness the Dalai Lama promotes tolerance. This is important.”

Juraj Turtev: “When the Dalai Lama answered the question:” What would you like to have today? What do you miss?” His answer was:” Peace and tranquility to this world and peace in all of us, “I liked that he does not promote his ego. He is altruistic. His answer does not start or end with “I”.

Just a few days after this visit, Vaclav Havel, a man who helped to make big changes in our country, and contributed to the development of our democracy, died. In the Czech Republic there is a lot of sadness because of it. But there is also cause for joy. His departure was the way he wished it. He died in the place he liked. According to reports he left in the morning, calmly, in his sleep. This is a good death. Nevertheless, even though we wish he was with us for the next ten years or more, we can at least enjoy the tranquility of his passing. The Dalai Lama also said that he will miss his friend Vaclav Havel greatly.

Mrs. Dagmar Havlova, the wife of Vaclav Havel invited the public to funeral procession through Prague. Instead of words, that my feelings cannot cove I offer photos here.

If the Czechs had their own angels, I think that Vaclav Havel would certainly be their president. Although he would of cared probably about this position…

In the hearts of many of us, his presence is still alive.

Thank you to Judita Kaššovicova and Juraj Turtev for their kindness and permission to show their faces. Thank you to Vaclav Havel for better life. Thank you to Helen and Kamil as they won for me the ticket for CZK 300, thank you for all those who organized the lecture, translating and cleaning up after it and all who supported the funeral procession and farewell for the man who changed our lives.

The house Zdena and Josef Škvorecký for quite a number of years called their home (and Zdena still does), is located in one of the nicest Toronto residential areas: an area of well-preserved middle-age residences with well-tended gardens and here and there a magnificent old oak (or maple) tree. Škvorecky’s is a truly historical house. Not only because it was a pilgrimage stop for journalists and prominent visitors from the Czech Republic (in February, 1990 – when their native land was still called Czechoslovakia – it witnessed a reception following president Havel’s appearance at the Convocation Hall of the University of Toronto, where he delivered an important speech to several thousands of his countrymen and received an honorary doctorate from the York University); but mainly because it was the editorial and publishing centre of 68 publishers, the most important exile publishing house. It is the house, where the last several years of his life he was cared for by Zdena, and from which he was taken to the hospital, where he died, after just a few days, in the morning hours of January 2, 2012.

The paragraph about him In the Canadian Who’sWho is probably the longest in the whole volume. It mentions all his books, among them The Cowards (Zbabělci), The Legend of Emoke (Legenda Emoke), the Tank Corps (Tankový prapor), The Miracle Game (Mirájk), The Swell Season (Prima sezona), The Engineer of Human Souls (Příběh inženýra lidských duší), Dvořák in love, the Lieutenant Boruvka stories, the murder stories he wrote with Zdena, starting with A Brief Encounter With Murder in 1999, as well as his translations. Most of his books were translated to English a well as other languages. His awards include: Gugenheim Fellow, Neustadt International Prize for Literature, Governor-General’s Award, Order of Canada, Czechoslovak Order of the White Lion (also awarded to Zdena) and several honorary doctorates.

Škvorecký also had a distinguished academic career, starting in 1968 as a Visiting Lecturer in English at the University of Toronto. He was appointed Associare Professor of English in 1972 and Associate Professor in the Drama Centre in 1972, Professor in 1975 and retired in 1990 as Professor Emeritus. In 1992, he was awarded by the University of Toronto an Honorary doctorate of Letters. Škvorecký participated in several programs of the Centre of European, Russian and Eurasian studies, for example The Seminar on Czechoslovakia. Both he and Zdena also kept in touch with the New Theatre. Zdena was a founding member appeared in the first production, Jirasek’s Lucerna; Josef wrote for the New Theatre a play, Bůh do domu (God in Your House).

We last applauded both Josef and Zdena on May 29, 2011 at the Mysteriously Yours theatre (a theatre then known as Limelight Dinner Theatre made popular by the Czech actor and director Adolf Toman).The evening of May 29 was partly a goodbye party for the Consul General of the Czech Republic, Richard Krpač, but most of all a tribute to Josef Škvorecký. We saw Rhytmus in the heel, a film based on Škvorecky’s story “Malá pražská matahara” (A little Prague Matahara), published in April 2003 by the Literary Academy (Private school of Josef Škvorecký) as the fist volume of Josef Škvorecký edition. It narrates the fortunes of a group of young people after the Communist coup d’état. All of them ended badly (with the exception of Dany Smiřický (Josef Škvorecký alter ego), whom the communist official in charge of liquidating the group, decided to keep in reserve. The film ends with the aged Smiřický’s sentence (both aching and noble) which does not appear in the book: “I have never forgiven myself for having survived it.” Zdena and Josef came intentionally late and were ‘smuggled’ to the balcony through a special entrance. As they were getting ready to leave, Richard Krpač announced their presence and the hall erupted in applause, which only increased, when Dr. Škvorecký took off his hat and started to leave, leaning on his walker, magnificent (Škvorecký was a believing Catholic) in the humble acceptance of his fate.

In the last months of his life, Josef Škvorecký tended one more dream: a hope that somehow enough capital will be raised to make a film based on his Cowards.

His death was reported by the world’s media, particularly in Toronto (the Globe and Mail) devoted to the Škvorecký story a whole page, featuring – among others – an article by Paul Wilson.

Montreal’s Alena and Ludvik Martinu are not just any married couple. Some time ago, we published a piece about Ludvik, a brilliant academician with practical bearings, who is – among other things – presently involved in developing an international research centre at the Mc Gill University. Now Alena, the editor-in-chief of Montreal’s publication Vestnik has decided to show that she, too, received talents from the Fates uncommon. Why did she decide to do so at this particular time? One of the reasons is quite prosaic: the drawers in her study were overflowing with her manuscripts which she had started to produce many years ago and something had to be done. Why not simply publish some of the manuscripts? And once she decided to publish, Alena, who was born in Czechoslovakia and speaks several languages, chose English as the language of her first published work.

Alena named her first book (with a cover by a writer and satirist Karel Novak, who often signs his work as “KN”) after the first of the seven stories in the book “Scream of Silence” – a title which reminds me of the spectacular painting, “The Sceram.” The book was published by iUniverse and picked as the “Editor’s Choice”. It is available in book stores Chapters and Indigo (in Montreal on St. Catherine in Downtown and Point Claire; in Toronto, on Edward Street). It is also available on internet, both in the traditional book format and as an eBook. Ludvik has this to say about his wife’s book in the Montreal’s Vestnik: “This literary work of our ‘Mrs. editor-in chief’…offers interesting ideas, dramatic situations, mysterious and unexpected reversals as well as philosophical reflections, all with one central theme of interhuman relations, with their fragility and their strength. Her romantic stories of young people are sketched against the background of Montreal’s streets, the deep forests of the Quebec’s Laurentians, Montreal’s race track, French music halls…”

The text on the inside page of the book’s cover seems to link to Ludvik’ welcome of the book in Vestnik: “In her compilation of diverse tales (Martinu) weaves an eclectic group of characters within a variety of settings while offering the inspiring message that love, respect, and communication are vital components to any healthy relationship. A wrong start for a young couple brings a catastrophe, a man nearly loses his chance for happiness simply by trying to do the right thing, an innocent flirtation results in a surprising bond for another woman …Interlaced with drama, mystery and fantasy, Scream of Silence is an intriguing collection of short stories that inspires reflection on the most beautiful and unexpected moments of life.”